Catching Up: Project Life 2015 and the DigiScrap Geek Podcast Episode 38

It has been my goal to share relevant thoughts and inspiration to go along with each episode of the DigiScrap Geek Podcast. I was doing quite well with this up until a few weeks ago when I rebranded my website. Changing things around on MSE took all of my full attention. I changed to a new template, had to learn a few new things and then learn to fix the mistakes I made along the way. It wasn't necessarily hard but it was time consuming. I still find myself tweaking things but well, I digress...

Back to the topic! We have continued to record the DigiScrap Geek Podcast and I have continued to write down ideas to expound upon regarding the subjects we cover. Today's post has to do with a request from our latest episode. The topic of Project Life came up. I love Project Life but as with anything I do, I have found I needed to organize it my way in order for me to make it a doable project. I have talked before about how I do a monthly page spread mixed in with 12 x 12 Scrapbook layouts. Talking about something is one thing. Showing is another. I decided to make a video sharing a walk through of my 2015 Scrapbook Album to date.

In the video, I talk a little about how my method is saving me space. I know it might not seem like that when you see all of those cat layouts. However, using this method has cut down the number of albums I have each year. Prior to this, it would take 4-6 albums to document a year of photos. I now have about 2-3 albums for one year. Still a lot, I guess, but for me a much better option.

I still have more insights to share from other episodes of the DigiScrap Geek Podcast. Summer seems to be the perfect time for me to catch up on blog posts( even get ahead in my blogging) and catch up on listening to my favorite podcasts. So stay tuned for more articles from yours truly. Same Bat Time. Same Bat Channel. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend with your family with a little create time for yourself.

This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

365Unscripted: 3x4 Collage Cards 2 by Traci Reed

365Unscripted 4x6 Collage Cards by Traci Reed














Currently List Cards and other products can be found in the RUKristin.com online shop.

The DigiScrap Geek Podcast Episode 38

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Project Life 2015 Goals: Spotlight on Superb Summer Stories

Are you caught up on Project Life? I'm not.  I could get caught up in berating myself, but I won't. Memory keepers spend far to much time worrying about being caught up. Instead, I decided to make a game plan. One which will allow me to catch up on Project Life for this year and which will also allow me to revisit the Stories of the Summer e-course from Simple Scrapper.

I completed my planning in three easy steps:

• My first step was to download the free planning form from Simple Scrapper. 
• Next, I took a look at which months I had completed for Project Life so far this year. January and February are done. March, April and May have pages started. The photos and kits are gathered in one spot. I just need to make the collage cards and get them into pockets.
• Finally, I took a look back at my completed summer stories pages from 2013. I made a note of what I liked and what I might change. 

Using the planning form, it was easy for me to see that I could break my work down into small, doable pieces. I won't have all of the photos right away for the summer stories. I can probably work on a few cards here or there while I accumulate additional pictures. Meanwhile, I can fill the time by working on past month, one page at a time. 

I do enjoy looking back at my completed 2013 project. However, I wish the products I used were a bit more consistent. I already know that I enjoy working with the Traci Reed Designs Pocket Life Collections each month. It stands to reason that these can be my go to kits for this summer. For all that the formality of planning implies, you really don't need a complex plan to be successful. Simple works pretty well. Who needs much complexity in this summer heat anyway?

How will you document your own superb summer stories? Are you just making layouts? Or will you include them in your pocket pages?

Affiliate Links when possible. Thank you for supporting MSE.

You can see my 2013 Summer Stories pages here.

The Stories of Summer E-Course is one of the many resources available in the Simple Scrapper Premium Membership. Click here for more information about Simple Scrapper.

How to Have a  More Creative Summer- an article from the Simple Scrapper Blog.

Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Seasons: Summer Stories on Pinterest.

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Project Life 2015: Weekending

My family weekends are fairly typical. Island living is very quiet. There isn't a whole lot to do unless you want to go out to eat or  pay for a tourist excursion to snorkel or fish. After being here for 9 years, we tend to just hang around the house. Even though that may seem a bit boring, it is our life right now and I wanted to document a typical weekend. Using the day in the life concept, I documented a weekend in the life in my pocket pages spreads.

Our typical weekend is spent playing video games, sleeping in, watching tv and papercrafting( that's mostly me). We do try to get out of the house once a day to enjoy some sunshine. Typically, we eat lunch at a restaurant down on the harbor or if the weather permits, a swim in our pool.For this pocket page spread, I documented our lunch and the games we played during one particular weekend.

I also had to opportunity to document a not so fun weekend. Losing power here is fairly common. Generally we lose power for a few hours here or there during the week, especially during the hot summer months. What wasn't so typical was losing power for 32 straight hours over the weekend. I had planned a PI day celebration, but instead of documenting it, I ended up documenting how we coped without electricity. We spent part of the time in the car in search of restaurants with generators who could serve ice cold drinks and good food. It wasn't ideal but it was another island adventure documented.

This month, I am working on documenting my March project life pages using Traci Reed's March 2015 Pocket Life Collection. My plan is to add cards and supplies from my stash which have colors that compliment Traci's kit. The first weekend page is an example of that. I had a sheet of paper from a Cocoa Daisy Kit which had text about weekending. I used Traci's 365 unscripted templates to create most of the multi- photo cards and added in papers from the pocket life kit. Note how both pages have pink, turquoise, green and grey within them.

I still have a few photos to gather. I hope to get a few more photos during this final week in March before I finish the pocket pages. I am finding that creating a few pages here or there during the month is helping me to stay on track with Project Life.

How is Project Life going for you? Are you keeping up in 2015? Or do you feel like you are falling behind.

Supply Options

Pocket Life 2015: March Collection by Traci Reed

365 Unscripted 4x6 Collage Cards by Traci Reed

Free cut file from Paper Issues

View blog post for supplies

Related articles

• Tales of a Craft Class Junkie: My December Story, 2013- finished (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
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• Scrapbooking Ideas for Visual Storytelling with the Compositional Story Style (debbiehodge.com)

Project Life: February 2015

February was a short month and so were the amount of pages that I made. I only needed two pages to cover the highlights. I could have stretched it to maybe 3-4 spreads if I had used more filler cards. However, I am discovering that, while I do like filler cards, I prefer to keep them to a minimum.

I have decided that I do always need one card to show the month and the year. The page with this card is essentially the introduction to all of my pages (traditional layouts included) for the month of February. This month, I included my usual nature photos and a visit with our Vet's office cat. I also documented our rising cost of groceries It will be interesting to look back at this shot of my son with our cart and compare the cost of the cart and the amount held within it to future grocery store photos.

Throughout the month, I participated in the Currently List Challenge.  Each Tuesday, you jot down current things in your life including TV shows, books, music, and plans. Participating in the challenge meant that I had four ready made cards to fit into my spread and there was no fumbling around trying to remember small details such as current tv shows. It was a definite bonus for me.






My only issue was that, for whatever reason, I grabbed a green card from my stash for week 4. I needed to find a way to fit it into the navy and red color scheme I had chosen for the month. I added a few small green accents. Note to self: only grab cards from the stash if they fit your color scheme.

I think I am finally finding my pocket page style. It's something I have struggled with for awhile. What's different for me now? I am using Traci Reed's monthly Pocket Life collections to make hybrid pages. Pocket Life provides me with a color palette  and a variety of cards. The color palette helps guide my choices( or should, please excuse the green card above) as I dig into my stash for extra cards and embellishments.I am also making use of Traci's 3x4 and 4x6 templates to build my own cards. I like the collage placement of the photos with space for me to add journaling. The collage placement is also making it easier for me to group photos together so that each pocket page spread has the stories grouped together. Grouping the stories together is what makes sense to me and allows me to design the page more effectively.

I still have a little bit of work to do within my personal pocket page style. It is after all, a learning process. I am just happy that I am starting to feel comfortable with what I am doing. Are you comfortable with your pocket page style? Or are you still finding your way?

Supply Options

Pocket Life: February 2015 collection by Traci Reed Designs

365 Unscripted: 4x6 collage Cards












Currently List Cards and Stamps are available at RuKristin.com. ( I am not an affiliate. I just love the stamps and cards) I used the Currently List stamp set and Post It Notes on the page above.




Additional Resources

This pocket page recently appeared in an article on the Traci Reed Designs blog featuring My Top 5 Must Haves for Hybrid Project Life.










See my January Project Life Pages Here.

The MSE Project Life Inspiration Board on Pinterest

Creating Collages for Project Life

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Tales of a Craft Class Junkie: My December Story, 2013- finished

Last November, I set out to work on a project that would document the whole month of December.The class was called Your December Story. It's comprised of a series of prompts, both for journaling and visual storytelling. It's not a December Daily which was perfect for me. I wanted something easy that I knew I would complete. Most of the layouts were finished by January. All except for two which I just finished today. I have to say that I find this very fulfilling. This is the first December in which I have managed to document all of the events that took place.

My introduction to my December story actually began in November. Prompts from the class had me searching for the first signs of Christmas to appear. I purposefully tinted the photos to help convey the changes. I started with black and white photos of our living room prior to decorations. I then moved to a vintage tint which keeps the color muted while showing the very first decorations we had observed this year.

Page two documents where we would be spending Christmas, current events, holiday wishes and our first holiday treat purchases. Now that I am thinking of the holidays, I have switched to brighter patterned papers and supplies.

Page three was dedicated to Holiday Decorations we observed around town. These included holiday murals and a variety of Christmas trees.

Page four documents the process of decorating our home. It also allows me some space to write about how this Christmas is different than past years.

There isn't much to do around the holidays where we live. To make things more special, we ate out every weekend which was a real treat for us.

Page six documents other holiday treats such as a trip to the movies, hot cocoa, sampling new candy and receiving a gift certificate from my husband's job. All little things to help make our December Merry.

Page seven documents typical everyday events that would have been documented in my monthly pocket page spreads. This includes the weather and what our cats were up to. I also did a recap of what I liked and didn't like about 2013.

Christmas Day fit entirely onto one layout. For whatever reason, I didn't have a lot of great photos of my son opening his gifts. Documenting it in PL style allowed me to highlight the full story with just a few photos.

Page nine could have been a layout. However, with the large number of boat photos from the nighttime Christmas parade, I felt pocket pages would suit it better. I strayed away from the holiday paper to include a constellation print. Perfect for a nighttime photo shoot.

Page ten could have also been a full 12x12 layout. However, I needed a back side to page nine so I made it into a pocket page instead. This page documents how we made a rice krispy treat holiday train.

Once again, I find myself liking some of the pocket pages and others not so much. What I did like was using the Your December Story class to document my Christmas. I was able to include so many details both large and small about the things that happened throughout the month. I also didn't have the stress of doing a Decemeber Daily. I didn't use all of the prompts. Some were a bit difficult for our small family of three. However, I did find that many of the prompts guided me into finding additional stories that may not have been told. I plan to use Your December Story again in 2014.

Please shop your supplies first, but should you need something, consider shopping through one of MSE's affiliates or preferred shopping venues. I may receive a small commission through any of the affiliate links below. Not all of the links may be affiliates. I often share places I prefer to shop or take classes. If you would like more information about MSE's affiliates, please visit the MSE affiliates and Privacy Tab in the menu above.

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This class is available through Get It Scrapped.
Click here to view more details

Project Life: March 2014

I seem to be moving through my Project Life spreads with ease. I am keeping things simple and using it as a creative warm up for my 12x12 scrapbooking endeavors. Recently, I was asked about how I choose which photos go into a Project Life Spread and which become 12x12 layouts. I have a criteria, but keep in mind it's not set in stone. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to scrapbooking, except that you should have fun telling your stories.

When it comes to Project Life, I consider it an introduction to my month. It's sort of a recap of the events and often includes photos that don't make the cut for the 12x12 layouts. These photos usually include nature photos I take on my walks, foodie shots, our currents( reading, watching, video games we are playing) and quick snaps of daily life that I want to capture. I often take a ton of photos of my cats. I tend to document the best ones in 12x12 layouts. I'm a bit cat crazy, so most of the extras make their way to Project Life.

In some cases, I make the 12x12 layouts in Project Life Page Protectors. March only had 3 Project Life Spreads. I put the first page of March on the back of a Pocket Page style Layout. This requires a little planning on my part. However, It's important that you don't force yourself to make extra PL spreads with tons of filler cards. Don't get me wrong...I love filler cards. I just don't personally want layouts filled with tons of them. Project Life is a way for me to include more stories in my albums while taking less space.






Page one documented playing Titanfall with my husband, the Get It Scrapped online crop,my son watchin tv with our cat in a box on his lap, and doing laundry with our cats' help. I used a journal card to write about how TV is different now then when I was a kid.

Page two documents our family staycation. I didn't feel it was a big event like it would be if we had traveled somewhere. However, I really wanted to document some of the little stories behind what we did as a family. A pocket page spread was the easiest way to go. I could work on the cards a little each day. I only ended up needing one page to cover our week at home.

Not a whole lot happened to us in March. I included my usual screenshot of our weather and pictures from a few random events. For example, there were fireworks one evening for some unknown reason. I snapped a few photos and wanted to document how much we enjoyed them. I also snapped a shot of a trip to starbucks with my son during errands.Project Life provides a way for me to document the little things in my life that mean a lot.


What does Project Life mean to you?

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